New Alienware 18 Config and Order Status Thread

I'm going to assume you ordered it when it was still available with 980m sli. If that's the case, that would be the issue. Apparently they are not currently showing being available with 980m 's due to a "supply issue. Take that for what it's worth. Either way, whatever the situation with the 980 m's is, that may very well be the cause of the delay.

 

I wanted it with dual 980m's, but the only options available on the website was the single 980m, or dual 970m. So I went with the dual 970m option. So my order shouldn't be delayed by any shortfall in the 980m supply, unless there is also a shortfall in the 970m supply.

 

You should have purchased from Dell outlet. They had AW 18 with dual 980m that was ready to ship. Price would been cheaper , and warranty is good as if buying new.

 

We purchased through a corporate program with my wife's company, she gets a discount, and gets a certain amount of credit based on the cost of the purchase. The credit got her a nice DSLR camera.

That's beside the point though.

 

I just got off the phone with Dell....again
The order is going to be delayed...again
The man on the phone said that the component causing the delay is the 512 SSD + 1TB 7200 Hard Drive. They found that out yesterday and were apparently told that they would have a further update in 3-5 business days, which will be past the current estimated delivery date.

What. The. Hell.
The damned hard drive? I can drive down the road and pick up a 512 solid state drive and 1TB 7200RPM hard drive both for a laptop without any issue. Why is a hard drive causing so much headache for such a gigantic company?

 

I feel your pain bro. I know that you are anxious , hopefully they can compensate you with a gift or something for being patient.

 

Looks like you got your order in under the wire:

RIP - Alienware 18
http://forum.notebookreview.com/threads/rip-alienware-18.768765/page-52#post-10217033

Better to not make any changes and chance a re-order failure.
http://www.dell.com/us/p/alienware-18/pd

 

yes, 18 will be plagued with delays to the very last; in this instance, better late than never. Lucky if they compensate him with just the 18 ... "the bigger they are the harder they fall ..."

 

I had to wait a month+ before my AW18 was delivered earlier this week due to back ordered part(s) too. And I have the dual-970Ms as well.

 

They need to wait for returns and refurbished parts to be available before they can complete orders you know. It's not easy being Dell.

 

What was your specs and how much did you pay ?

 

I have the exact same experience as you. Back light bleed is there no matter how I try to adjust screws on the display, soon as I throw the bezel on, it gets bad again. I have a new bezel that still causes it. But the burn-in is there and it is crazy fast. Never had that issue on my past 18's but man it is staring you in the face with this one. Also some strand artifacting that only shows once the burn-in kicks in.

 

I can't handle back light bleed...it is SUCH an eyesore, especially when playing in dark environments ingame. It is glaringly obvious to the eye, one of those defects when seen, cannot be unseen.

Thanks alienware for garbage build quality. Don't bother using IPS/PLS if you can't guarantee proper mounting.

 

Yeah, it sucks. This is weird tho. When I take the bezel of I can adjust the screws and get it looking good. I put the bezel back on and it's pretty bad. Tried another screen from Dell,that looked worse without the bezel so I just kept the one I had. Tried it with 2 different bezels, same issue.

I'll tell you one thing that ticks me off is how companies get away with using refurbished parts when doing replacements. If someone is paying for a warranty and buys a new computer, they should get it fixed with new parts. It's complete bull.... That that's how it works. If you can't source new parts or it cost too much then don't offer the damn warranty. But paying the money we do for these machines and the warranty and then getting hand me down parts is pathetic. Even the machines in this thread and the warranty replacement machines are all built with refurbished parts.

People are to blame, across the board in every aspect of our lives people have just accepted more and more crap and let people and companies or govt, whatever it is, get away with more and more crap. Noone stands up for anything anymore and no one expects or demands anything that's good or right anymore. It's a sad state we are in.

In fact, that's it, I'm done. Im going back to commodore man!!

 

Yup. That's why we have so much trash now... not the least of which is the BGA garbage. Lack of knowledge and lack of principle lead to lower standards, and we're supposed to drink the Kool-Aid or be ostracized as weirdos because we are the exceptions, living on the fringe as unreasonable control freaks, LOL. Those of us with high standards and zero tolerance for garbage should be the status quo, not the exception. Very sad we live in such a pathetic world now. It sure didn't take very long for things to turn to crap.

 

No it didn't..didn't take long at all. And when things go like this, it only gets worse. All one has to do is look around and that is clearly evident.

 

So these computers are gone or what? Completely taken off Alienware.ca

 

Looks like it. I don't see them on the US site either. Availability was poor since the refresh with Maxwell GPUs and it took some people many months to have their orders fulfilled, often after numerous cancellations. Might have been too much for them to manage with the focus on going mainstream with BGA junk. Seems that is where their heads and hearts are now, so I suspect the good old days (and good hardware) are really over now. It's a very deflating situation for those that expected more.

 

Yea, this will be the last non-BGA laptop from Alienware that I have. I'm going to run it into the ground. Not sure what the future has for us, but if Clevo folds, it's over.

I'll be enjoying these last few months.

 

Glad I ordered my Alienware 18 when I did in January. I guess it was a rare occurrence that I had 0 issues with my order. It's a great laptop and we'll worth it imo. Sad these days are over though and I too will run this laptop into the ground.

 

Hope you enjoy it because they have zero resale value. I recently upgraded from an AW 18 with 880's and 4810mq to one with 980's and 4940. I have tried to sell my previous one which is in mint condition and still under warranty. Twice had to accept low ball offers both times were a different person, and both times the person didn't pay. Now I'm still trying to sell a beautiful 18 with 880m sli and people are making offers on it as if it's an hp. 14 months later and they basically sell for a third of what you pay. Thinking of selling my new 1 too and just moving on but I may never be able to sell the old one at this point. Glad you got a good one, they are still awesome machines when you get one built right that runs right.

 

I'm not selling this laptop for a long while (3-4 years). At that point, the price will be $1k or lower so it really won't be a big deal at that point.

 

When I get the power management issues sorted in the M18x R2, I will stuff the 980Ms in there and sell the POS Alienware 18. I can't believe people would pay $4000 for a computer with inexcusable defects, like light bleed. Terribly built in comparison to the M18x and M17x R2

 

I just picked up a max m18x-r2 for $1600 shipped with dual 980m ... i need to get rid of the other m18x-r2 lol ....

 

wtffffffffffff man where do you get these deals.

 

College student. He originally wanted $2500 with 3940xm , 256gb ssd , 2TB HDD , dual 980m , Blu-ray 12 GB in pristine condition. I have been watching it on eBay , no one bought it , and decided to send him a few offers. So for $1600 shipped , he switch out the processor to 3820QM and upgraded memory to 24GB, eveything else intact. Paid directly through PayPal.

I like camping out on eBay lol ... That's where I get all my deals. It does not hurt to ask for a lower price.

 

It's true. They don't have any value anymore. I haven't seen any go for more than 2k lately except for one or two new or refurbished ones that were maxed out. If they are used, no matter the specs or condition, they won't go for anywhere near what you paid.

My current one is 2 months old. Was a warranty replacement for someone else and if you look at my SIG, it's not too shabby. Valued at roughly 4500 in January when it was put together. If I sold it now on eBay I would probably get 2k, maybe 2500 if I'm lucky. New condition, warranty, doesn't matter. AW looks really bad right now and us buyers are going to lose almost every dime we have paid for these things.

Chew, at this rate, it will be worth 1k on a year.